I had never heard of this before reading this thread, i think its a crazy idea to open these rare examples, i can see people doing it if there was bubble damage or similar but otherwise leave them alone. Each to there own i guess, wow

IF I WOKE UP TOMMOROW WITH MY HEAD SEWN TO THE CARPET I WOULDN'T BE MORE SURPRISED THAN I AM NOWYOU SIT ON A THRONE OF LIES!

exellant great link and well explained .the numbers sent in for u grading is horrifying allthough terrible and shocking i can understand why these people do it if they can achieve sums of money like that , nutts

I haven't collected seriously since the 90's, but now that I'm back in, I'm pretty amazed all those MOC have been destroyed for mint condition loose figures. It makes no sense to me.

I consider AFA a scourge on the hobby, do you need someone to award a (sometimes arbitrary) grade to enjoy what you have? Can the buyer and seller not make an accurate judgement on the value themselves?

I just discovered this thread and I'm shocked! I've only just joined this forum and I can't believe how naive and uneducated I am. I honestly didn't know people sent perfectly mint carded figures to the AFA only for them to open them, rare and expensive ones too. Are these people mental? I thought the figures were only taken from battered or cut cards or even baggies, which in some peoples opinion is bad enough, but mint cards? Why would you do that? It shouldn't be allowed, AFA should refuse to open them. This really sucks and has made me rethink about my collecting. I have two U85 figures. Big soz, bought in ignorance

Cc4rhu wrote:Smash them out and defeat this evil practice. Video it too

Yeah I would happily do that if I was rich! Unfortunately I can't afford to. Besides, someone else made a good point, if you smash them you might just be causing more figures to be taken off perfectly good cards. I'd rather sell them to a U-grade collector and at least fill a demand with something that's already been graded. I didn't send them in for grading and I bought them not realising the full story. Need the dosh to fund some loosies or a MOC you know. I think the problem lies with the AFA, they are the one's physically opening the cards, they need to stop U-gradng!